She had

conveyed at last from the tower to the palace of Richmond. been intrusted to the care of Sir Henry Beddingfield. His behaviou was rough, and the princess-who seems to have been greatly move by her present circumstances-was still treated as a prisoner. Mary offered her deliverance if she would agree to marry the duke of Savo -a proposal which Elizabeth declined. She was now conveyed t Oxfordshire, and, on the third day, after receiving expressions of popu lar regard on the journey, reached Ricot, the residence of Lord Williams. Here she was hospitably received; but she was soon removed to Woodstock, where Beddingfield continued to attend her. Early, however, in 1555, Elizabeth, who had gained the personal or political favour of Philip, now the husband of the queen, came, attended by Beddingfield, to Hampton-court. Bishop Gardiner advised her to make submission to Mary; but she rejected the proposal, declaring that she appealed to the laws of the country, not to the clemency of the queen. At an interview, however, between the royal sisters, Mary put a ring on the finger of Elizabeth, and it has been said that the latter requested the queen to give her some treatises to peruse in favour of the Roman Catholic faith. Whether or not she entered at this time on the study of the questions at issue between the two churches, it appears that, this year, attended by her former tutor, Roger Ascham, she occupied herself with classical pursuits.

Sir Thomas Pope, to whom the princess was intrusted about this time, was a mild and indulgent man. With him, as her superintendent, she resided at different houses in succession, and finally settled at Hatfield, Herts. Part of his duty was to take care that mass was performed in Elizabeth's establishment; and it appears that, in September, 1555, she joined Mary and the court, in preparing, by a fast, for a public act of forgiveness on the part of the pope. Mary even wrote to her sister in terms of kindness, and declined, notwithstanding the desire of Philip, who was now abroad, to enforce on her a marriage with the duke of Savoy. In the spring of 1557, the queen visited Elizabeth at Hatfield; in the summer of the same year, the latter paid her royal sister a visit, which was accompanied with much magnificence, at Richmond; and when, about this time, Elizabeth refused proposals to marry Eric, son of the king of Sweden, Mary expressed satisfaction at her conduct.

2

On the 17th of November, 1558, the queen died, and Elizabeth was called to the English throne. On hearing of her accession, she fell upon her knees, and uttered these words from the book of Psalms : "A Domino factum est illud, et est mirabile oculis nostris.” On the 20th, she held a privy-council at Hatfield, and chose Sir William Cecil as her principal secretary, Sir Thomas Parry comptroller of the household, and Sir Edward Rogers captain of the guard. Parry had long been her cofferer, and Cecil, afterwards Lord Burleigh—a name so eminent in the history of her reign-had corresponded with her in the course of her misfortunes. On the 23d, she proceeded towards London, and from the Charterhouse, where she fixed her residence, went on horseback, amidst the shouts of her subjects, to the Tower, where she fell on her knees, and rendered thanks to the Almighty, and

Camden.

whither, in procession from the palace of Westminster, she again went, on the 12th of January, 1559. Two days thereafter, she proceeded, with a large attendance, through London, seated in a chariot; and, next day-although the prelates had refused to perform the service of the coronation for the heretical princess-that ceremony was performed by the bishop of Carlisle. She was welcomed in the city with great public preparations; and, though popular joy is no infallible sign of cordial attachment to the individual in whose cause it is excited, there was much in Elizabeth's character that may have inspired hopes of an effectual revival of England from the melancholy condition into which, under her predecessor, it had sunk.

With Sir William Cecil, who was a decided supporter of the reformed religion, the queen took counsel on the subject, at the beginning of her reign. Before her coronation, she gave directions for a great part of the church-service to be read in English, and also prohibited, in her own chapel-to the practice of which the churches had been ordered to conform the elevation of the host. In the course of her procession through the city, when an English Bible was presented to her, she pressed it to her lips and bosom, and for that present returned the city especial thanks. Her future conduct, as sovereign, corresponded to these early expressions of her favour for the Protestant religion; butas is little wonderful, considering her parentage and early life-certain preferences for particular Roman Catholic observances appear to have clung to this patroness of the English reformation. She disliked the marriage of priests and the free exercise of preaching, and was fond of altars, crucifixes, and clerical vestments. From early prejudice, perhaps, or from a wish to avoid unnecessary opposition to the Roman Catholic party in the state, notwithstanding the generally favourable disposition of the nation towards a revival of the Protestant articles and worship, when, on the day after the coronation, several courtiers besought that, besides the other prisoners released in honour of the new reign, the four evangelists and St Paul might also be freed from their captivity, she gravely answered that they should be consulted in the first place whether or not they were willing so to be released.

Parliament, which met in this same month, confirmed the right of Elizabeth to the crown, and, by a deputation from the house of commons, she was advised to marry. She replied, that she had formerly resisted, on that subject, the temptations both of ambition and of danger, and that she still preferred a single to a married life; that, as the recommendation was general, and did not suggest any particular person for her husband, she was not offended at the interference; but that for the commons to have proposed a person for her to make choice of, would have been unbefitting their character as subjects, and her's as an independent queen; that England was her husband, and the people were her children. This last idea, indeed, seems to have been a favourite one with Elizabeth-for she is said to have frequently remarked, that she would not believe respecting her subjects, what parents would not credit respecting their children. But if she felt the attachment, she also exercised the discipline of the parental character, and on this occasion she evinced that combination of regard to her own pre

rogative and rights, and gracious expressions towards her subjects, which she displayed in the future period of her reign. As to her former resistance to entering on the married state, it can scarcely be said to have been without reason that she spoke of it as she did. She had declined the hand of the duke of Savoy, and afterwards of Philip II., and Eric, king of Sweden. In the same year she entered on one of those 'progresses which she occasionally made, and which gave her an opportunity both of receiving entertainment from her nobles, and of affording a gracious reception to her poorer subjects. If the representation given on this subject by Bohun, one of her eulogists, be correct, the parental character which she claimed was in some measure realized by the sweetness and condescension of her manners, even though it be granted that political prudence was one of the motives which prompted her gracious behaviour towards her poor petitioners.

This year, 1559, Elizabeth sent assistance to the Protestants in Scotland, and afterwards she refused a passport of safety to her cousin Mary, queen of Scots, on the return of that princess to Scotland, from her residence in France. There Mary, it seems, had assumed the English arms, so as to excite the jealousy of the English queen; and she had also been under the training of her uncle, the duke of Guise. Against the party headed by this Catholic house, Elizabeth supported the Protestant followers of Conde. But, jealous as she appears to have been of the Roman Catholics abroad, she declined, when the parliament, which met in 1563, recommended her entering into marriage, so as to fix the succession to the throne, to give a promise to that effect, or to decide in favour either of the supporters of Mary, queen of Scots, or of the family of Suffolk-the two rival aspirants at the succession to the English crown. For her cousin, the queen of Scots, however, she seemed to entertain a friendly regard, and proposed to her the hand of her own favourite, Robert Dudley; but, on Mary showing a disposition to entertain the proposal, she discouraged further proceedings towards its consummation.1 On this occasion, Mary sent Sir Robert Melville to confer with the English queen, and that envoy has recorded, in his 'Memoirs' some amusing particulars of his visit to her court. He and Elizabeth conversed respecting the garbs of different countries, and the latter having appeared in a variety of dresses, she asked Melville which of them best became her. He replied, the Italian, thinking he should thereby gratify her, as, in that dress, her hair, of which she seemed to have a high idea, was peculiarly displayed. She even asked him, whether he thought Mary or herself the fairer ? He replied, that he thought Elizabeth the fairest person in England, and Mary the fairest in Scotland. Which of the two was the taller? was another of her queenly inquiries; and, on his answering, Mary, she suggested that, in that case, her cousin was too tall, as she herself was of proper stature. The same style of question she extended to music and dancing. This picture is certainly by no means flattering to the modesty and dignity of the English queen. In articles of dress, Elizabeth, learned and powerful as she was, seems to have taken a peculiar pride, if we may judge from the magnificence and multitude of those which she possessed, although, indeed, Ascham represents her as, in youth, eminent for free

4 Keith 241-252.

dom from gaiety in dress; nor is it a fact without an amusing sort of interest, and even perhaps great moral weight, as illustrating the weakness and inconsistency of human character, that a proclamation was issued against incorrect likenesses of her majesty, about the very time when we find her retiring from the seat of the plague to the perusal of the fathers of the church.

In 1566, Sir James Melville repeated his visit to the English court, in order to announce the birth of Mary's son, Prince James, afterwards Elizabeth's successor. The queen, who had given a ball at Greenwich on the evening of the Scottish envoy's arrival, when she heard of the joyful event, treated it rather as a gloomy one, leaning her head on her arms, and bewailing the want in her own case of the good fortune which had happened to the queen of Scots. In September thereafter parliament met. Cecil announced that Elizabeth had an intention to marry; but while they were proceeding in a debate respecting the succession, a message from the queen arrived forbidding them to go on. The command drew from one of the members an inquiry as to its legality, and others expressed dissatisfaction with the conduct of the queen in regard to the succession. She repeated her prohibition, but at last allowed the house to proceed. Yet, in closing the parliament, 2d January, 1567, she represented certain of the members as seemingly against her, professing, however, a wish to fix the succession. ther I live," said her majesty, "to see the like assembly or no, or whoever holds the reins of government, let me warn you to beware of provoking your sovereign's patience, so far as you have done mine." 5

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But if Elizabeth's circumstances were at this moment somewhat different from what so great a lover of prerogative desired, she was soon called to contemplate the darker lot of the queen of Scots. On the death of Darnley, Mary's husband, in February, 1567, Elizabeth wrote to her, with a view to secure for Lennox, the father of the deceased, an addition to the time allowed him for preparing evidence of Bothwell's concern in Darnley's death; and after the marriage of the Scottish queen with that suspected man, and her subsequent confinement in the castle of Lochleven, she expressed both pity for Mary's misfortunes and displeasure at her conduct-advising her to avoid revenge against her enemies, to punish the murderers of Darnley, and to send her son to be educated in England. She also expressed an intention to support her cause, and authorised her envoy Throckmorton, to caution the associated lords against rebellion. He was also directed not to take a part in the coronation of Prince James-a ceremony which was performed, 29th July, 1567, after Mary had signed her abdication at the place of her confinement; the French government was counselled to stop commercial intercourse with Scotland, until Mary should be restored; and when the queen of Scots escaped from Lochleven, Elizabeth offered her assistance. On the 16th of May, 1568, Mary, on the defeat of her supporters at the battle of Langside, crossed to the English shore. Lord Scrope, and Sir Francis Knollys, met her at the castle of Carlisle, and conveyed to her Elizabeth's condolences, but intimated that, under the present suspicions of her conduct, she could not be admitted to the presence of the English queen. The earl of Murray,

now head of the Scottish reformation, and Mary herself agreed to refer the dispute between them to Elizabeth. Mary drew back; but Elizabeth expostulated, and at last the commissioners of Mary met with those of the English queen. Mary declined to answer, alleging that her sovereign rank withheld her from being amenable to any tribunal. Elizabeth wrote her, and suggested to her commissioners that it would be an evidence of guilt, if, after the charges made against her, she failed to offer a defence. A personal interview with Mary, Elizabeth still refused, yet declined to acknowledge that there was a lawful king or regency in Scotland. Neither would she agree to Mary's proposal to go over to her friends in France. In 1569, she discovered a scheme of the duke of Norfolk to marry her royal prisoner, and committed him to the tower, from which, however, he was soon released, and received again into favour, on his engaging to give up the scheme of the marriage, but by this time, an insurrection had occurred, headed by the earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, of which Mary herself had gained information from the leaders. Elizabeth sent an army into Scotland on the charge of the English rebels having received protection in that country, but to Mary she continued to make friendly professions, although similar terms appear to have been allotted to the opposite party. Norfolk failed to fulfil his engagement, and a new attempt, fostered by Rodolphi, the bishop of Ross, and perhaps the queen of Scots herself, brought him to the scaffold on the 2d of June, 1572. Elizabeth twice revoked her signature to the warrant for his death, but, at length, acceded to a petition from parliament, that she would authorize his execution. To Mary she sent messengers asking satisfaction for her late conduct in the affair of Norfolk. Mary partly denied, and partly excused her participation in the matter. The parliament were incensed against the Scottish queen, but Elizabeth sent orders that they should not proceed in their opposition. Yet to these transactions excited by the partisans of Mary, Elizabeth could not be indifferent, and a sonnet on the disorders of the time, attributed to Elizabeth, was published, in her own life-time, by Puttenham, in his 'Art of Poetry.' In August, 1574, was perpetrated in France, under Charles IX., that infamous massacre of Protestants, by which upwards of twenty thousand persons were destroyed. On this occasion, a French ambassador, Fenelon, appeared at the English court, to explain the conduct of the king of France in this horrible transaction. He was received by the courtiers with solemn and melancholy silence, and Elizabeth herself, though she heard his explanation with apparent calmness, declared that she considered the deed a guilty one, even though the allegation of the French government were true, that the Hugonots had engaged in a conspiracy. But, in politics, prudence may seem to dictate what honour would otherwise forbid; and, in the present case, Elizabeth went farther towards preserving an alliance with the French court-which was countenanced in its recent act by the pope and even by the Spanish government-than, even with the temptations to moderate conduct which her situation presented, the generous hatred of injustice and perfidy may be willing to excuse. Although, indeed, she renewed her protestation against the massacre, she allowed a marriage to be negotiated between herself and the duke of Alençon, the third brother of the French king, and sent the earl of Worcester to assist at the baptism of